Google Play developers can now use generative AI to create store listings

Generative AI really is everywhere. It's used to make social media avatars. It can help debug code. It can even ask nosey neighbors to be a little more polite to each other. Now, Google is hoping to use it to encourage app developers to expand their use of custom store listings on the Google Play store. New features announced at Google I/O will give developers will access to AI-powered tools that will help them create new listings and convert their existing app listings into multiple languages.

App developers could already create up to 50 custom store listings, but Google hopes these new tools will make managing them easier. To start, it's introducing a store listing groups feature that allows developers to craft a base listing for their app, and then modify specific elements to tailor it to a specific audience demographic or event. Potential users visiting your app's store listing from YouTube might see one set of screenshots, while visitors from another country might see a different series of images, as well as an app description in their native language.

The new AI-powered features seem designed to make that easier. The AI helper, for example, can take developer prompts highlighting a key feature or marketing theme, and spit out ready-made text to help a user craft a targeted Google Play Store listing. There's also a new machine translation tool that can help developers quickly list their app in 10 different languages.

Although most of these new features were built to help developers find and expand their audience, there's at least one new tool being rolled out to average users: AI-powered review summaries. Google says the feature should "help users learn from each other" about what makes an app "special at a glance." Even this is designed to help apps gain more reach, however: At launch it will only help summarize positive reviews in English.

Follow all of the news from Google I/O 2023 right here.